With the increasing popularity of the mobile internet, a growing number of applications that use a current location of a user are being developed. For example, Alipay Wallet offers a geo-fence function such that corresponding prompts or responses are produced and presented to the user when the user enters a designated area (e.g., when the mobile device using Alipay Wallet is located within the designated area). Geo-fencing is a new application of LBS (Location Based Service) that uses a virtual fence to enclose a virtual geographical boundary. In the event that a mobile device enters or leaves a certain specified geographical area, the mobile device can receive automatic notices and alerts related to the certain specified geographical area.
In some related art, a server associated with a web service or other application running on a mobile device or other client can synchronize the fence information in the vicinity of a certain geographical location to the mobile device, and the mobile device or other client can determine whether it has entered a certain specified geographical area corresponding to the fence information. Typically, the determining of whether the mobile device or other client has entered the specified geographical area is performed at fixed time intervals.
However, when geo-fence determination is performed, if the fixed time intervals are spaced too far apart, such determination leads to untimely and inaccurate determination results. Conversely, if such fixed time intervals are spaced too closely together, the mobile device or other client performs positioning frequently, thereby increasing the amount of traffic and energy consumed. Therefore, there is a need for a method, device, and system for providing more effective enforcement of a geo-fence or determinations of whether a mobile device or other client has entered a specified geographical area associated with a geo-fence.